For many of the older professional distance runners it is apparent they need to move on in life. Continuing to hold that same dream for even another year seems pointless to me.
For many of the older professional distance runners it is apparent they need to move on in life. Continuing to hold that same dream for even another year seems pointless to me.
If you're making your living from the sport is it really a dream? And if you're making your living doing something you really like doing why would you quit doing it to start doing something you don't like as well? Why wouldn't you keep doing it for as long as you can. Look at other professional sports and you see guys hanging on for as long as someone will give them a uniform and a paycheck.
HRE wrote:
If you're making your living from the sport is it really a dream? And if you're making your living doing something you really like doing why would you quit doing it to start doing something you don't like as well? Why wouldn't you keep doing it for as long as you can. Look at other professional sports and you see guys hanging on for as long as someone will give them a uniform and a paycheck.
Maybe someone else can, but I can't find any argument with your post, nor have I anything else to add.
OK, but at some point you’re just kidding yourself if you’re a 28 year old 7th place Olympic Trials finisher with $500 in savings.
HRE wrote:
If you're making your living from the sport is it really a dream? And if you're making your living doing something you really like doing why would you quit doing it to start doing something you don't like as well? Why wouldn't you keep doing it for as long as you can. Look at other professional sports and you see guys hanging on for as long as someone will give them a uniform and a paycheck.
I agree with this, especially for the athletes who are truly passionate about the sport.
It also won't hurt if they have another job lined up once they retire, or good prospects of getting one - for example, some people have mentioned that Gwen Jorgensen will have no trouble finding a very good job thanks to her education.
Why? Maybe they enjoy it. If they can make some money doing what they love and delay the inevitable for another year go for it.
HRE wrote:
If you're making your living from the sport is it really a dream? And if you're making your living doing something you really like doing why would you quit doing it to start doing something you don't like as well? Why wouldn't you keep doing it for as long as you can. Look at other professional sports and you see guys hanging on for as long as someone will give them a uniform and a paycheck.
a VERY good point there HRE, we can drawing parallels with e.g the Swedish football super star Zlatan Ibrahimovic and still going strong soon 40 ...... Kudos! :)
That is why I posted the question. Personally, I would move on. Doesn’t mean I would stop running, or lose my interest in sport. I would just reorient my priorities.
Ghost of Igloi wrote:
For many of the older professional distance runners it is apparent they need to move on in life. Continuing to hold that same dream for even another year seems pointless to me.
Don't you think that living vicariously through athletes that you have zero connection with is time for you to move on with your life?
Ghost of Igloi wrote:
OK, but at some point you’re just kidding yourself if you’re a 28 year old 7th place Olympic Trials finisher with $500 in savings.
Well.....if you have reached that level you just need some magic to run even faster and break through. :) ........and you are still young enough to study to get a good job after running career.
Ghost of Igloi wrote:
For many of the older professional distance runners it is apparent they need to move on in life. Continuing to hold that same dream for even another year seems pointless to me.
HRE is right. What's pointless is telling someone that their dream is pointless. Kudos to all of the older professional runners that are still making a living doing what they love.
I had the very same impression as I watched the women run 10,000 meters and there was a 38-year-old with 4 kids trying to finish in the top 3 out of 41 runners. Then some idiotic photo appeared on the screen showing her husband in a U-Haul because there were no rental cars available. I thought: What are they trying to prove ?
go to the mirror Son wrote:
Ghost of Igloi wrote:
For many of the older professional distance runners it is apparent they need to move on in life. Continuing to hold that same dream for even another year seems pointless to me.
Don't you think that living vicariously through athletes that you have zero connection with is time for you to move on with your life?
Huh?
DanM wrote:
I had the very same impression as I watched the women run 10,000 meters and there was a 38-year-old with 4 kids trying to finish in the top 3 out of 41 runners. Then some idiotic photo appeared on the screen showing her husband in a U-Haul because there were no rental cars available. I thought: What are they trying to prove ?
I had similar thoughts.
For some yes. I have a feeling mo has an undisclosed life long Nike deal that will let him retire now or whenever he wants and he will not need a job again. For others they definitely need to quit while ahead
Ummmm........ever read “To an Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman written in 1896????
A. E. Housman wrote:
To an Athlete Dying Young
The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.
Today, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.
Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay,
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.
Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears.
Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.
So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.
And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl’s.
[quote]Ghost of Igloi wrote:
OK, but at some point you’re just kidding yourself if you’re a 28 year old 7th place Olympic Trials finisher with $500 in savings.[/
Because maybe they're rather live they're life while they're young than have a crappy job for the next 30-40 year only to retire when they're too old do anything fully functional. Maybe they enjoy racing? Maybe they enjoy the travel?
Why are you so arrogant to assume how someone should live their life? Probably someone that hates their life in many ways.
a e housman, an underated genius. he thought my school's cricket pitch one of the fairest in the land.
Ghost of Igloi wrote:
DanM wrote:
I had the very same impression as I watched the women run 10,000 meters and there was a 38-year-old with 4 kids trying to finish in the top 3 out of 41 runners. Then some idiotic photo appeared on the screen showing her husband in a U-Haul because there were no rental cars available. I thought: What are they trying to prove ?
I had similar thoughts.
That 38 yr old finished 2nd in a marathon major last year and will most likely break the American record this year. She’s far from washed up on the roads. Her earning power remains strong too.
Ghost of Igloi wrote:
OK, but at some point you’re just kidding yourself if you’re a 28 year old 7th place Olympic Trials finisher with $500 in savings.
Yes, but they aren't really pros are they? Just wannabes. The real pros can keep going another 10 years.